


in my veins

by geekintheblack



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, i had to stop myself, probably has more of the detective thing than the supercat thing but hey, the nerds are still here being nerds, this almost became a castle-ish case fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-23 22:31:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17088962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/geekintheblack/pseuds/geekintheblack
Summary: For the prompt: p.i. or regular detective AU.Detective Kara Danvers just wanted an open and shut case for once.





	in my veins

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ughaghost](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ughaghost/gifts).



> This came very very close to being a Castle AU, but it isn’t. Still, it’s heavily inspired by it, hence the title. Hope you enjoy it!

 

“Detective Danvers, Detective Danvers!”

 

“What, Brian?” Kara asked distractedly, tapping away at her phone while walking towards the break room.

 

“There’s- she just- a reporter is here to see you, about-” the young man fumbled with his words and winced when Kara’s suddenly sharp gaze turned to him, “about the Maddox... case...”

 

“So? Send her away.”

 

“I’ve tried! She won’t leave! She’s... scary.”

 

Kara sighed and pocketed her phone. The coffee machine at the break room was looking more and more like a distant possibility.

 

She put her hands in Brian’s shoulders and looked him in the eyes. “Brian. I know it takes a while to sink in, but you’re a police officer now. You gotta have some authority, man!” she said, giving one of his shoulders a light slap. “Now go on and tell her that if she wants anything on the Maddox case, she’ll have to wait for tomorrow’s press conference.”

 

“Okay. Okay, yeah, I’ve got this,” he said, mostly to himself, before walking away. 

 

Kara shook her head and continued on her path to her precious crappy coffee. She swore these rookies were getting younger every year. Alex had called it ‘getting old’ but Kara wouldn’t hear it.

 

The break room was thankfully empty and soon enough Kara was plopping down on the lumpy couch in the corner, coffee and phone in hand. She gave a sigh of relief that was interrupted by her phone buzzing once again.

 

_ Rich boy probably died  before fall , call soon . _

 

Knowing this wasn’t the time to tease her sister for texting like a baby boomer, Kara tapped the call sign on her contact info and sipped her coffee as it ringed.

 

_ “I said I’d call you soon,” _ said Alex exasperatedly.

 

“And I saved you the trouble. Alex, what the hell? This was supposed to be open and shut. Rich playboy gets drunk, falls off balcony, and dies at impact, end of story. I told you we didn’t find anything at his hotel room.”

 

_ “I know, I know, but Kara, this guy was definitely roughed up before he died. Actually, it’s pretty safe to say you’ve got a murderer to catch.” _

 

Kara frowned. “What do you mean?”

 

“Just... come down here when you can, and I’ll show you,” she said. “But just a heads up, the guy looks ugly.”

 

“I’m sure I’ve seen worse. Be there soon, love you.”

 

“Love you too.”

 

-/-

 

Okay, so she had seen worse, true, but it still wasn’t a nice sight.

 

“Jesus, Doc, what the hell did this?” Maggie asked while leaning in and scanning over the report on the screen.

 

“Well, detective, you know I’m not a betting woman-”

 

“Liar,” Kara interjected, but Alex ignored her with practiced ease.

 

“but I’d say you’re looking for something sharp, thin, medium length. Like maybe an ice pick, but thicker, which brings me to my next point. See, the guy was obviously stabbed repeatedly. Which is pretty much all an object like that is good for. Twisting doesn’t do much, and you can’t really slash it.”

 

“That’s very comforting.”

 

“I mean, if you hit the right places you’re golden, right?”

 

“Right, but that would be a bit hard. It’s not an effective weapon in a fight. Now take a look,” Alex said, pointing at his biceps then wrists.

 

“He was tied up! His hotel room was clean though,” Maggie started, but Kara interrupted her.

 

“Puncture wounds don’t bleed much, but since there weren’t signs of struggle anywhere, I think it’s safe to say our guy wasn’t killed there. I mean,” she turned to Alex, “these wounds killed him, right? Not the fall?”

 

“Looks that way. If I may, detectives, this is all pretty strange. Why bother dressing him up in clean clothes and throwing him off his balcony if the cause of death was going to be so obvious as soon as we got a closer look?”

 

Kara leaned back into the wall and crossed her arms. She could already feel a headache coming. “I don’t know. Maybe whoever did it needed a head start of sorts.”

 

“Or they needed the scandal. The news have been reporting it as a tragic accident since sunday night, but now...” Maggie shrugged. 

 

“Either way, this changes things. We better go talk to the captain, c’mon. Thanks Alex,” Kara called on her way out.

 

-/-

 

“Detectives, hey,” Winn greeted them as soon as they walked into the bullpen. “The hotel from the Maddox case just sent over the security tapes you asked for so we have some guys going through it, might still take a while.”

 

“Thanks Schott,” said Maggie while still checking the papers in her hands.

 

“Yeah, thanks Winn, sorry for the hurry but we want something before tomorrow’s press conference.”

 

“No problem, but uh, by the way, I think that rookie, Williamson, was looking for you.”

 

Maggie snorted. “The kid has a crush on you, Danvers.”

 

Kara rolled her eyes and walked off to search for the officer.

 

“Detective Danvers!”

 

“Brian, I heard you were looking for me? I’m in a bit of a hurry-”

 

“I’m sorry, Detective Danvers, it’s just- that reporter from earlier, she wouldn’t leave until I promised I’d get this to you,” he said, handing her a thick brown envelope. “We’ve checked, it’s safe - just a bunch of documents and newspaper clippings. Sarge wanted to just trash it but I thought it might be important.”

 

Kara resisted the urge to sigh. “Okay, Brian, thanks.”

 

The package made a loud thud as it dropped on her desk.

 

“What’s that?”

 

“Nothing, what’d you get.”

 

Maggie huffed. “Nothing, they left me on hold about five or ten minutes ago. But hey, get this, you won’t believe who was sniffing around the precinct earlier today - Winn just told me.”

 

“No guesses.”

 

“You’re no fun, Danvers,” she rolled her eyes. “Cat Grant.”

 

Kara dropped her phone. “What? The Cat Grant? You’re joking.”

 

“I’m not! She was just- Yes, this is her. Badge number 1-3-7...”

 

Kara focused her attention back to the package in front of her. No way it could be...

 

She grabbed it and made quick work of taking out its contents. Like Brian had said, it was basically a pile of collected documents, news articles and pictures. On top of it all, a scrap of paper with a note. 

 

“Call me. CG” and a phone number.

 

Wow. Wow, okay, holy crap.

 

She scanned the first sheet in the pile. It was a news article from two years ago about the business her victim had been set to inherit. The next held one of several pages of financial demonstrations for the company - all data Kara already had access to, but with notes scrawled around the margins. What in the hell.

 

-/-

 

By the time Winn called for her and Maggie, Kara had gone through most of the pile. Cat Grant had collected some loosely connected stories and data, but Kara still couldn’t make sense of it. It was all public information, all things that Kara herself could have researched, and something didn’t fit, like there was a missing piece that would turn it all into some sort of big picture. So far it had created more questions than answers for her.

 

“So get this, our guy wasn’t brought in by anyone. Take a look,” he said, pointing at a not frozen screen, “he’s going up to his room alone and very much alive about five hours before he fell off the balcony. Didn’t leave again.”

 

Maggie cursed. “That doesn’t make any sense. Maybe he was ambushed and taken to the garage through the stairs?”

 

“Nope, we checked the footage from the garage. Nothing.”

 

But Kara was already looking at two new texts from Alex.

 

“Guys. He was drugged,” she said, turning to Maggie, “Alex says he was probably unconscious since before the first stab. He didn’t struggle at all.”

 

“So they staged the bruises on his arms. Made it seem like he struggled through what looks like torture, then staged a tragic fall. What the hell is going on here?”

 

Kara leaned back into the wall and pinched the bridge of her nose. All she wanted out of this week was a simple, open and shut case, not whatever convoluted, TV cop drama mess this was turning into.

 

-/-

 

Hours later, Kara sat in a corner booth at Colbert’s, nursing a drink while deep in thought. This wasn’t a common occurrence - frankly, cop bars weren’t really her thing - but Maggie had insisted. Only, barely half an hour later her partner had latched onto a pretty uniform that passed by and gave her a look, so here she was, alone and sipping cheap alcohol on a wednesday night.

 

So she was at least enjoying some peace and quiet when suddenly, someone unknown took a seat across from her. Kara reacted immediately, hand going to her side for her piece, before her brain caught up with her eyes and she realized that Cat Grant, of all people, was sitting right in front of her.

 

“Good evening, Detective Danvers, can I buy you a drink?”

 

-/-

 

“So as I said, Miss Grant, anything else you want from me will have to wait until the press conference.”

 

Kara’s voice didn’t waver as she made her best effort to remain professional.

 

“I see, Detective. But here’s the thing. I know you got my package. That material, all of it, was something I already had for a story I was working on before Matthew’s death.” She paused for a sip of her drink. “I was investigating for embezzlement and the like, but I dug deeper. I found something that makes me think I can at least lead you to a suspect.”

 

“Miss Grant, if there’s any information you can bring forward-“

 

Cat cut her off. “I can’t burn my source. But if you give me a day, I can get you some more papers. I think you’ll connect the dots easily enough.”

 

Kara stared at her and Cat stared back, one eyebrow rising in challenge. She sighed tiredly and wondered when did her life take a turn and park here.

 

“Why?”

 

“Use your words, Detective, I’m sure the academy taught you that at least.”

 

“Why are you doing this? You didn’t even know Maddox. Giving me the evidence is throwing away a nice and juicy exclusive. Why?”

 

Cat was silent for a while before grabbing her cup to finish her drink. She looked Kara in the eyes and finally gave her a response without snark.

 

“I have my reasons for speaking out when I can, because when I didn’t, the consequences affected innocent people.”

 

She looked away from Kara and the detective used this opportunity to study the person sitting next to her. What a beauty, she thought, but quickly chastised herself for not focusing.

 

“Okay. Bring me what you can, then, and we’ll work with it.”

 

Cat looked back at her and smirked.

 

“Perhaps when this is all over, I can buy you a real drink, Detective.”

 

-/-

 

Cat Grant didn’t come for the press conference. Instead, she showed up at the precinct late at night, two coffees in hand and a brand new pile of papers. Kara didn’t question how she knew she’d be there, just offered her a seat and accepted the fancy latte with gratitude.

 

Maggie sent her an update on their witness, and just as she thought, it was another dead end.

 

She pored over the evidence, tossed up theories and conjectures, watched Cat’s face for any confirmation on whatever it is her source had. Everything finally led her to a board member with an old grudge against the victim’s father, some stupidly rich slimeball who she’d never guess would get his hands dirty for something so trivial.

 

She called for him to be brought in immediately, and Cat waited with her until a couple of hours later, when she got confirmation that he’d been located at one of his beach houses.

 

“I don’t get it. He went through so much trouble to throw us off but didn’t use his chance to leave the country?” she asked, running a hand through her blonde hair as she hung up the phone.

 

“Well, let me tell you a secret about the rich and famous, darling: they all feel a lot smarter than they really are. Not me, of course, I’m a genius, but others,” she said with a wink, and Kara gave a tired laugh.

 

“Of course. Seems like you were right after all. This’ll make a good end-of-week story, hm?”

 

“I wouldn’t be here otherwise, would I?” she said in feigned disinterest, grabbing her phone to text away as she always seemed to be doing.

 

Kara for some reason couldn't help but think , _ you would. _

 

-/-

 

Two weeks passed before Cat was able to make good on her promise of buying her a drink. The case’s unexpected twists had left Kara and her team scrambling for a while, but now, finally, she had a suspect in cuffs awaiting trial and a mountain of paperwork that signaled a job mostly done. Cat’s idea of a real drink apparently involved a upscale bar in one of the nicest parts of National City. Kara felt extremely out of her element, dressed in her work slacks while surrounded by all these young and wealthy corporate big shots. The drink was great, though.

 

Cat Grant was funnier than she expected. She had at least some basic knowledge of every big deal in the city, which allowed for some hilarious one-liners muttered to Kara as they watched people passing by. Kara was having fun and it almost made her forget that this was the Cat Grant, her celebrity crush since her academy days. Almost.

 

If Cat’s looks and touches and little jokes could be perceived as... more, well, she wouldn’t lie and say she didn’t notice. Maybe even reciprocated them.

 

And maybe she offered a ride back, for the sake of safety, of course, which somehow ended up with them making out on Cat’s ridiculously expensive couch like teenagers. And Cat’s little commentary about the badge clipped on her waistband might have made her hold a little tighter and kiss her a little harder, but who could blame her for it? The police academy hadn’t prepared her for Cat Grant’s teasing. She was still doing a commendable job of holding down her fangirling impulses.

 

Alex and Maggie would both never let her live this down, so she might as well make the most of it.


End file.
